Alley, Marybeth & Orehovec, Barbara (2007). Revisiting the Writing Workshop: Management, Assessment, and Mini-Lessons. Grades 1-5. New York: Scholastic.

Pages: 160     Price: $19.99     ISBN: 978-0439926430

The teaching of writing has changed over the years. In the past, writing was not taught; it was assigned and corrected. Teachers emphasized the final product of writing, not the process which produced it (Calkins, 1986; Willis, 2001). By the late 1970's, the emphasis had changed and the process writing movement began (Willis, 2001). The process writing approach, first developed by Graves in 1983, focused on instruction, which allowed teachers to help students brainstorm ideas, solicit feedback, revise their work, then edit and proofread the final product before publishing (Calkins, 1986; Graves, 1983; Willis, 2001). This type of writing process, usually through writing workshops, provided children with numerous opportunities to practice and internalize what goes into a piece of writing just as a professional author does (Wong-Kam & Vasquez, 2003). Writing workshop is an interactive approach to teaching writing in which students learn and practice the importance of rehearsal, drafting/revising, and editing their own work (Calkins, 1986; Graves, 1983). The literature is very thorough in presenting encouraging success stories of the writing workshop; however, the establishment of the writing workshop can feel risky to new teachers since there is no prescribed sequence for teaching skills and strategies and there is the possibility of students being off-task during the writing time (Sudol & Sudol, 2001). Not anymore…

In their latest book Revisiting the Writing Workshop, Alley and Orehovec, two mentor teachers share their classroom-tested procedures and successful mini-lessons on writing craft, genre, and revision. Breaking down the components of the writing workshop, including every little detail from scheduling and strategy mini-lessons to hand-chosen book lists and assessment ideas, checklists and rubrics, the authors allow teachers to implement their own workshops in their own classrooms with little to no stress and definitely more ease.

For ease of comprehension, this book has a straightforward structure in which each individual step building a successful workshop is distinguished. The authors of the book start with the overall structure of writing workshop by providing information about the basic elements (mini-lesson, independent writing and conferring, sharing and reflection) and giving the rationale for using writing workshop supported by the literature and latest research. By providing their real own classroom examples, item checklists, and assessment rubrics, the rest of the book describes how educators can design and implement the successful and effective writing workshop.

Probably the only recommendation I can make for improving this book is to suggest that in their next edition of this book the authors think about adding directions and strategies on implementing writing workshop for teachers of students from diverse cultures and/or students who are English language learners -- something that would make an already excellent reference even better.

Revisiting the Writing Workshop is definitive in its description of the process and thorough in helping educators learn how to begin, implement, follow-through, and evaluate the success of a writing workshop. The book is well-organized, with clear headings and subheadings that make it easy to read and to reference. This book is full of practical ideas, tips, and suggestions on how to foster students' writing. The authors capitalize on their actual experiences to validate their conclusions. This book can definitely serve as an outstanding tool for anyone choosing to conduct a writing workshop.

References

Calkins, L. M. (1986). The art of teaching writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Graves, D. (1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Sudol, D. & Sudol, P. (1991). Another story: Putting Graves, Calkins, and Atwell into practice and perspective. Language Arts. 68(4), 292-300.

Willis, S. (2001). Teaching young writers feedback and coaching helps students hone skills. In C. Jago (Ed.), Language Arts: A chapter of the curriculum handbook (pp. 125-129). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wong-Kam, J., & Vasquez, V. (2003). Writing today: Between the ideal and the real world of teaching. School Talk, 9(1), 1-7.

Reviewed by Dr. Zafer Unal, Assistant Professor, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg